Classy and Trashy Readers' Salon: Fall 2021

[Moorhead Public Library]

Hello anyone who happens upon this! I don't know if any of you want to continue on here now that we're meeting in person , but thought I'd issue an invitation in case you do. Feel free to post any thoughts about things your reading!

I'm currently working my way through Charlotte Macleod's Kelling and Bittersohn series. I don't think they're likely to become favorites, but I'm enjoying them. I know I'd read at least a few back in the day, but I have no recollection of any of the mysteries.

- deb

[Karen]

I recently listened to the new William Kent Krueger book Lightning Strike and the new Louise Penny book The Madness of Crowds and really liked both.

I also listened to The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood based on a recommendation and liked that a surprising amount considering that it is a fairly typical romance and that doesn't tend to be my favorite genre. This one is set among academics at Stanford and there are some surface similarities with one of my advisors back when I was in school. She started dating her husband while she was a grad student and he was a professor at Stanford.

Oh and I read Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi for an online book club and she is a very talented writer. This was her debut novel and it is a sweeping multi-generational story set in part in Ghana and I thought it was impressive and immersive as we meet different characters over time. I also really liked her novel Transcendant Kingdom which was written later but I read first.

I just started the second Matthew Shardlake novel, Dark Fire, by CJ Sansom because I was excited to discover that Hoopla had it on audio.

Oh, and in terms of actual reading of a paper book (since I listen to far more audiobooks), while traveling I read one of the Kate Shugak books A Fine and Bitter Snow by Dana Stabenow and now I am reading The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff, which was second on a UK list of the 10 best historical fiction novels, so I was intrigued. I hope to finish it this weekend since text has been taking me forever since I listen a lot but don't sit down to read all that often.

[Kathy]

Hi All! I've had an interesting summer of reading. I read at random and thoroughly enjoyed The Book of Lost Names and The Four Winds. Our last book discussion at WF was on the book The Mountains Sing. I think that was my favorite book of the year. Take care all! Kathy

[Moorhead Public Library]

I'm listening to the new Thursday Murder Club book! (The Man Who Died Twice). So far I'm loving it as much as the first one, although there's certainly a bit of a shocking beginning. But for books that just overall make me smile, they're definitely going towards the top of my list.

Also still working through the Kelling/Bittersohn series; I'm on the last one, but paused it to listen to Murder Club. I'm also looking forward to exploring some mystery audiobooks I've discovered on hoopla - I came across a list of historical mysteries and hoopla has almost all of them! They really do have a crazy-good audiobook selection.

Karen - I've never read the CJ Sansom books and imagine they might be kind of dark for me, but let me know what you think

I'm going to be sending out an email reminder about October's meeting soon, but feel free to let me know if you'd prefer not to get emails from me.

[Moorhead Public Library]

I don't know how everyone else is doing, but I've had a brilliant run of new books by favorite authors! I read the 2nd book in the Thursday Murder Club series, 'The Man Who Died Twice,' and I think I might have liked it even better than the first one. I hope that series keeps going for a while because Joyce and her friends seriously just make me feel happy.

I also read the new Anthony Horowitz book, 'A Line to Kill.' It wasn't my favorite in the Horowitz/Hawthorne series, but it was still very entertaining. I feel like without even trying very hard you could write a paper about any of his books - he's so blatantly meta that you trip over fascinating ideas everywhere about mystery novels (do they trivialize crime? prop up our belief in a sense of justice? are they trashy?), the role of the author, the proper use of pathetic fallacy, how to interact with somebody you don't like but who does good work....seriously just the tip of the iceberg.

And I also got the new Donna Andrews holiday mystery: 'The Twelve Jays of Christmas." Again Bernadette Dunne does an amazing job of capturing the recurring characters voices in the audio version; her narrating this series is probably one of my favorite audio experiences ever. This particular installment in the series doesn't necessarily stand out from the others, but it was completely entertaining and made for a lovely weekend's listening.

Meanwhile, around the new books I've been listening to the Roderick Alleyn series by Ngaio Marsh. I'm in a bit of a groove with them and enjoying them, especially the mystery aspect. I think she excels at laying out mysteries w/ clues the reader can follow and try to solve it for themselves.

With that said, there are definitely times where you just have to be thankful that we've (sort of?) moved past such casual homophobia and racism. It can be very jarring as you're reading, which I think is a good thing and indicates that progress has been made, even if sometimes it feels like we've regressed to an earlier time.

I hope you've also all enjoyed some good books and I look forward to hearing about them! - deb

[Moorhead Public Library]

Hello! I hope to see everyone tonight at book club - 'The Mystery of Mrs. Christie' isn't going to become a favorite book, but I love talking about Agatha Christie!

I'm still working through the Roderick Alleyn series and enjoying it. I might even prefer Ngaio Marsh's mysteries to Agatha Christie's....?

- deb

[Kathy]

Hi ladies! I see you are doing a Mary Stewart book in December. If I can get my act together I hope to read and participate! I attended the Lorna Landvik watch party on Monday night. It was fabulous. Kathy

[Moorhead Public Library]

Hi Everyone!

Just a heads-up - I'll be starting a Winter 2022 thread so feel free to post on there even though it's not quite 2022 yet.

Hope you've all bee reading good things; I've been doing a number of Christmas books: some of Stephanie Lauren's Lady Osbaldestone's Christmas books (so incredibly cozy and innocent), 'Misteloe and Murder' by Carola Dunn, 'God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen' by Rhys Bowen and I'm currently reading 'Tied Up in Tinsel' by Ngaio Marsh (going out of order a bit on the series). I think Mary Stewart's 'This Rough Magic' has been my favorite recent read, so hopefully we'll have a good discussion tonight! - deb

[Kathy]

Hi!! So enjoy hearing about what you are reading and about the book club. I did not get This Rough Magic even started but maybe I can try it over vacation. Such a classic author. Merry Christmas everyone! Kathy

[Karen]

Kathy - I really enjoyed This Rough Magic. More than I expected to, so I encourage you to read it if you get the chance. The book I got from the book sale, had that and two other Mary Stewart novels combined and I plan to read the second one soon since I liked it so much.